Part 2 of “Everybody Wants You,” guest-starring Superman and The Flash!
Tortured with guilt following the discovery of a horrifying new facet of his power, Jason Rusch
must accept that even Firestorm the Nuclear Man can’t always survive on his own.
Summary
Jason is fiddling with the “beeper’ he got form the JLA last issue. He starts seeing the very fiber of the device when his father hustles him off to work. At work he overhears talk of a metahuman woman made of rock prompting him to think of the woman from last issue.
At night he returns to the park to fuse with the homeless man but instead runs into a cop out for a night jog. He tries to find the young woman but attacks and tries to kill him. His powers have altered her on a cellular level making her even more unstable. He manages to subdue her but in the process she’s injured. With no way of a hospital being equipped for this he presses the beeper and superman comes in and calls flash to take the woman to star labs. On the way to the facility Superman warns Firestorm of the improper use of powers and the weight of the firestorm mantle he now carries.
Jason’s dad works out in the gym with his prosthetic arm, a friend of his laments that the gym won’t be the same without him.
At the lab Jason is offered tests to help him with his powers, he accepts but he will have to come back another day. He also pretends he has no idea what could have altered the woman he sent there. The cop warns him he may become addicted to being firestorm.
The Good
Addiction comes into play this issue with the suggestion that the power Jason now wields may be intoxicating. He tries to play it off as nothing but it’s a real possibility. He’s been weak and helpless his whole life and now he’s been elevated to the status of god. I can see how that would be intoxicating. The power of flight alone would be near impossible to give up if the average person got it.
The dependence of merging to activate his powers is also NOT something I think ill ever get used to. It’s a very different power activation method than normal and sure it grants him a slew of abilities but how fair is it for the unwilling participants? Is he randomly abducting people as the cop suggests? After all this is a lot like date rate, his “victims” will have no recollection of anything he has done with them. The moral dilemma of what one “ought to do” is also up in the air.
What’s up with Jason’s dad is a nice touch as well, since I really want to peel back more of his layers to understand why he is the way he is now. There’s hopefully nothing as black and white as good or evil at play here.
The art continues to shine, conveying everything perfectly.
The action this issue is some of the best since the series started which should keep action junkies very happy.
The Bad
The undefined powers and lack of clear direction for this book may leave some wanting. The story wraps up just as things get good.
The Ugly
3/5